The first place to where victims of violence flee

JAKARTA (JP): Talks on religion and violence against women last month not only delved into descriptions of how violence towards women is condoned through the abuse of religious interpretation, but also heard concrete proposals and experiences of how religious institutions have dealt with women seeking help.

Magdalena of the Sikap organization said its services to victims of violence since 1995 was driven by the many victims of sexual assault particularly among women and children, who had no access to "medical, psychological and spiritual help."

A comprehensive type of service was seen as urgent among the mostly charity-type centers in the Christian network, she said. She acknowledged that one constraint in her work is the tendency of church workers to be "exclusive" and also the suspicion among people that church workers aim to convert non-believers.

Another presentation by First Lady Sinta Nuriyah Rahman focused on Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and explained the background to the establishment of the Puan Amal Hayati Association, a network of women's pesantren.

In her written address she touched on the May 1998 riots among the series of violent events in the country.

It was a shocking wake up call, she said, to "the very painful reality that we actually have no social institutions equipped to take in large numbers of victims and refugees over a long period, caused by the continuous social and political conflicts in our land."

However it has been proven, she said, that the first places victims flee to are religious institutions such as the pesantren and mosques (meunasah) in Aceh, or the churches and temples. In the aftermath of the riots, she said she was often asked to find sanctuaries for victims or refugees.

"It was the pesantren that instantly came to mind," she said, "as someone born and raised" in one.

The schools are spread everywhere, while "we know that violence towards women -- though it is very sad and hard to say -- also happens everywhere," Sinta Nuriyah said.

"So I thought, why not empower the pesantren to become crisis centers?"

Such crisis centers would have to take in victims from violence both inside and outside the home, thus the need to "empower" institution leaders and staff to understand different situations and how to handle victims.

A few such centers set up over the past few years are accessible to residents of Greater Jakarta, but none, she said, match the strategic position of the pesantren given the vast number of schools in villages, and the charisma of the kyai or nyai (kyai's wife) in charge.

"Traditional ties within the pesantren are formed by student- teacher relations and marriage, which has led to very strong networks," Sinta Nuriyah wrote. She said this means that if one pesantren cannot accommodate victims and their families, if the schools are too close to perpetrators of violence for example, "they can be moved to another, safer school."

Although several pesantren were in poor condition, she said they blend very well into society, meeting the needs of both children who can still study at local schools and the mothers who must lie low.

Continuous waves of terror throughout various regions, Sinta Nuriyah said, has strengthened the determination to increase the sanctuary function of the pesantren.

She added that although leading figures of such schools are known to view women as subordinates, "this does not mean that this can't change."

Sinta Nuriyah has long been involved in a project on religious reinterpretation of the position of women in Islam in Fatayat NU, the women's branch of the Nahdlatul Ulama organization.

Also a member of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, she adds, "the history of the women's movement in Indonesia has underlined that the potential for change in gender relations towards a more just pattern began in the religious communities."

The statement reflects a distinct departure from the days when organizations leaning to the government said it was not viable to set up crisis centers here, as Indonesian women would not bring shame to the family and air dirty laundry.

Sinta Nuriyah cited the regular talks among women at the pesantren on religion and gender, "which are always packed because they meet the basic need (of women) to search for justice."

Another strategic consideration of pesantren is their long relationship with activists in Muslim organizations such as Fatayat, of which Sinta Nuriyah is a member.

The initial network under the Puan Amal Hayati Association now has a few pesantren but the founders are picky.

"We can't select schools where the kyai practices polygamy," a founder confided to The Jakarta Post. (anr)